Culture-Bound Syndromes

In addition to Western psychiatric disorders, Asian Americans also may experience culture-bound syndromes, such as shinjing shauariuo and hwa-byung.  These syndroms may draw upon Asian persons' mind-body connection.  In many Asian cultures, the mental ill are so stigmatized that sufferers may experience their anxieties as physical aches and pains

SHENJING SHUAIRUO, or neurasthenia, is a medical disorder triggered by stress.  The symptoms include sensation of pain or numbness, chronic fatigue, weakness, anxiety, and fainting.  Neurasthenia is an acceptable medical diagnosis because it conveys distress without the stigma associated with a psychiatric diagnosis.  

HWA-BYUNG, or "fire-illness," is a Korean folk illness.  Sufferers report such symptoms as a heavy feeling in the chest, sleeplessness, hot flushes, cold flushes, and blurred vision.  It is thought that hwa-byung might serve to provide sufferers with a way to conceptualize and resolve emotional distress.